GP1

Respectfully, there are almost no years in which this is the case. The following teams finished #5 in the final AP rankings going back to 2014 (leaving 2020 out for obvious reasons): 2019 - Oregon 2018 - Notre Dame 2017 - Ohio State 2016 - Oklahoma 2015 - Oklahoma 2014 - Florida State It would be fair to say that some years the gap between a mid level Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12 or PAC12 (maybe) is not so large, but in the "playoff" scenario, we are not talking about a mid level P5 school. We are talking about a P5 team that probably at least made it's conference championship game. There is also a 50/50 chance that team was beaten badly in their conference championship and is going to look to take out some frustrations on a lesser team. G5 schools getting destroyed in games like this becomes exactly the kind of "exposure" G5 schools have gotten out of Tuesday and Wednesday night games, only a lot more people will be watching. It is in fact terrible for the G5 schools. So I ask the question to everyone. How is it good for G5 schools when their best team gets destroyed annually in the college football "playoff"? Exactly how does a Colorado State/UAB/Akron/Ball State/FIU benefit from this? Please don't respond if your only answer is money. Chasing after money has put us in a horrible position where we believe more of the same bad thinking in the pursuit of money will somehow result indifferent outcomes.

There is nothing wrong with the way teams are currently ranked and sorted out for the "playoffs". In reality, one doesn't have to watch too many college football games to see that there are only about 2-3 teams with any shot at winning a national championship. Heck, anyone who watched the coin toss for the national championship games and saw the disparity in size between OSU and Alabama knew that game was over before it started. Anyone else who gets in will just be receiving punishment in the form of extra practices and an unwinnable game for having a good season...some prize. The evidence is right in front of us. Half of conference championship games are not very competitive so expanding that into a "playoff" is not going to create much more quality football regardless of how big they make the "playoff". The biggest concern should be the above becoming the norm. It has in the lower divisions as the same teams appear in the "playoffs" every year so normalizing what happens above is what probably will happen. The top 2-3 teams become great programs because the best of the best players want to play for a national championship. The recruiting advantage these teams hold over the rest of college football will become greater, not lessened by an expanded "playoff". Recruiting is the lifeblood of college athletics. With great plays, you win. Without them, you are in an almost insurmountable position. What does this mean for G5 schools? MORE of the same pile of poop they have to eat already because their athletic directors, conference administrators and university administrators are too narrow sighted, and probably too stupid, to think of another way to improve their horrible position in the world of college football. G5 schools are constantly fighting a losing battle against the P5 schools. In "The Art of War", Sun Tzu has three famous statements about fighting (Keep in mind that his greatest goal was to not fight unnecessarily or preferably at all): "The one who knows when he can fight, and when he cannot fight, will be victorious." We cannot win the fight against P5 schools and this "playoff" is only going to make our position weaker. "The one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements." I'm afraid G5 schools don't really understand themselves and are in a constant state of endangerment/self-destruction because of it. "Subjugating the enemy’s army without fighting is the true pinnacle of excellence." G5 schools do not actually have to fight the P5 schools to be successful and reach some level of excellence. There are plenty of college football conferences that play below the FBS level that have reached a level of excellence in their own way without firing a shot against P5 schools. It can be done.

It isn't a playoff. There are no playoffs in college sports. They are invitational tournaments.

For whom? Alabama or the G5 school? What about the rest of them?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/college-football-playoff-officially-recommends-expanding-to-12-teams-192316854.html Iowa State, Northwestern, BYU and Indiana were ranked 9-12 in the AP final Top 20 for 2020. Want to make college football less meaningful? Force Americans to watch Indiana get destroyed by Alabama. More of something that is bad for something is not the answer. This is a joke.

A real punishment would have been to force him to eat 10 pounds of gefilte fish.

A social media coach is an even dumber idea than the always popular "clock management coach" NFL fans think an NFL coach should have on the team. Truly stupid stuff.

Don't give up so easily. It can go well. The Athletic Department is not in a bad way. A major program needs fixing, but in general we are in a good position.

If I had more time today, I'd explain to everyone how a guy like Williams hires a guy like Arth. It isn't complicated, but obvious. More to do with personal preference than professional preference.

Maybe in some cases, but not in this one. Finding the new AD could have been as inexpensive as placing three ads in local papers and the President calling his buddy. Akron is a better job than UWGB. Making the move for then new AD was obvious.

If this is all we expect out of our AD, we need to fold up the Athletic Department. In closing, I'm pray to the good Lord that the University did not spend a dime on an executive recruiting firm.

As far as G5 schools go, this is more of the same. Neither bad nor the brave jump forward I would like to see. The good old boy network is difficult to break. Since it is more of the same, expect the same.

Not a bad move. I mean...seriously, what could go wrong?...... Edit: I hate to give ideas to the competition, but I think MAC athletic directors are so stupid they wouldn't know a good idea if it fell on their heads. Why in the world wouldn't you take a deep breath and think about it for a few seconds? I mean, after a few minutes, the name Doc Holliday came to mind. He is a proven winner at the G5 level, out of work and may find it appealing to go to an established program and win some games next year then ride off into the sunset (no pun intended). It would give UB a year to see how things shake out.

Every time I think about, I fall asleep before I can decide.

Sorry they are upside down. Don't know how to turn them. The only piece I am missing from my memory is how much time was remaining in the game when Akron got the ball back.

It's not about rivalries. It's not even a rivalry. It's just a good idea. It's working for Wake and UNC. We can beat Toledo. We have in the past. We will beat them again at some point. They need to do something interesting. Getting destroyed by Auburn and OSU isn't interesting. We've seen that far too much already. The idea of playing the likes of Troy, ULM, UNCC, New Mexico, Temple, Howard, etc makes me want to fall asleep. If I still lived in Ohio, I think it would be awesome to go to Toledo every other year to watch the Zips play a late summer game at the Glass Bowl. If any of you haven't been there, it's the Wrigley Field of the MAC.

It was 1992. Gary Pinkel's first season at UT. It wasn't just the last second kick. Toledo made a great comeback and scored with little time remaining in the game to tie it. Back then there was no overtime. Akron was able to get just close enough to kick the FG with no time remaining. https://utrockets.com/sports/football/schedule/1992 If there are any journalists who read this and have a copy of an ABJ article or a news video, that would be awesome. It really was a great college football game. I would love to know how Toledo scored late. My memory says it was 20-17 and they kicked a late FG to tie it but were really close to scoring a TD, but my memory ain't what it used to be.

That's a pretty loose definition of a rivalry. If the series being competitive is the benchmark, then the OSU vs. Michigan rivalry is not really one. In fact, it's becoming the Tennessee vs. Vandy rivalry in terms of national relevance. Besides, I'm not really interested in debating what rivalry means. I want them to play because they are two schools within two hours of each other, at the same level and that allows students, fans, alumni and the general community (basically the taxpayers of Ohio) to enjoy a day of fun and football on a late summer day. If the mayors want to have some sort of trophy, I could really give a hoot. Akron won't always be this bad. We have been this bad before and have recovered to some level of respectability. Not that long ago we were in the MACC. The MAC is a pretty easy conference to get good in as long as you don't make catastrophic mistakes.

I don't know, but my guess is misplaced priorities by athletic directors followed closely by a lack of imagination. What is a rivalry? I have no idea. I would say that UNC and Wake have no rivalry. Wake really has no rival. UNC has Duke and NC State to hate. UNC and Wake have decided that playing each other in OOC games when they are not scheduled for an ACC match up is good for the players, students, alumni, fans and general community. The last time they played it was a beautiful 6 PM, Friday night kick off in W-S. It was a great game with Wake having to hold off a desperate second half comeback by UNC. After the game, the bars and restaurants in uptown W-S were packed with smiling fans from both schools. Isn't that what Toledo and Akron should be trying to accomplish with an annual game. What is in it for Toledo some ask?.?. Some snark there would be an easy win. Maybe, maybe not. The all time record between the schools is 12-9 in Toledo's favor. Two of the best games I have ever saw at the Rubber Bowl involved Akron kicking the longest FG in school history for a last second win and Toledo Tom's final season when the Zips won a well played game by both teams. Maybe the question isn't, what's in it for the Universities of Toledo and Akron, but what is in it for the taxpayers who support these programs? What is in it for the players, students, fans, alumni and general communities for these two schools? Are they not intertwined? I would bet there is a lot more in it for these two schools playing each other than a game against a school like Troy or UNCC or ECU or Purdue or some other school people in Ohio have almost zero interest.

I would love it also. However, it isn't how WF schedules OOC games. They know who they are and they compete at their level. Basically, they are an ACC school for brainy kids and try to compete against other brainy schools. G5 schools could learn a lot from this type of "know your identity" scheduling. Upcoming Wake OOC games include: 2021 - @Army, @UNC (Not an ACC game, but smartly contracted so fans can have some fun. I'll probably go. Can't beat a first weekend of November weather in Chapel Hill. Why don't we play Toledo every year regardless of the MAC schedule first or second week of the season?) 2022 - @Vandy, Army 2023 - Vandy, Air Force 2024 - @Army, Mississippi (low level SEC school with good academic standards) 2025 - Army, @Mississippi 2026 - @Purdue (excellent academic school), @Army, They also have NIU which is unusual...this game may never happen. 2027 - Tulane In recent years they have also played Rice, Baylor, Stanford, Tulane and Navy. I know they throw in some bottom feeders, but that is the nature of P5 schedules. Although, ODU is not a program to sneeze at next year. Lots of good talent in the Virginia Beach area. I don't think it is crazy for MAC schools to play 10 conference games, one cupcake and one G5 school. Maybe 9 conference games, two G5 schools and one cupcake. Either would be better than what is currently being shoveled out for fans to watch/endure. Early season college football is mildly interesting at best the way it is currently scheduled.

It's funny you bring this up. I'm going to assume you may be discussing things such as masks and social distancing. My wife and I discussed this last weekend and decided if Wake Forest or the State of North Carolina is going to require masks at games, we are not buying tickets. They still have some of our money from last year. We will get that refunded and do something else with it. Last year we went to two games and had to sit there for 3 hours with a mask on when there was not another person within 20 feet. We simply are not going to spend our money to participate this year given the high level of vaccinations and increased knowledge of the virus. Given their attendance, I am confident I will be able to repurchase my existing tickets on the 50 yard line relatively easily. Heck, maybe we will find something else to do with our recreational time in the fall. The beach is a fun place to go in the fall.

I wouldn't say that. “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” - Charles Mackay

Yes, but that comes after they answer a simple question. What do they want their identity to be? To me, it is a very simple answer. G5 schools should strive to make their athletic departments benefit the athletes, students, alumni, fans and surrounding communities to the best of their abilities. For the next 15-20 years, G5 schools need to live in the moment and knock off the wanderlust they are endlessly engaged. Find a new direction with different kinds of leaders than the ones we find graduating from the Sports Management programs universities now offer. I believe that world exists somewhere between FCS and P5 schools. “A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.” - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Thanks for your response. In terms of the base product, G5 schools are more entertaining now than they have ever been so I wouldn't use the word decline. Except for at the very top where there are 3-5 teams that win every week in lopsided blowouts, college football is more entertaining than it has ever been. G5 schools just don't have the resources and are never going to have the resources to keep up with the P5 schools. I'm not concerned about the lack of commitment. I think they are doing all they can do with the available money. My problem is their chronic bad decision making. You can have all of the resources in the world and when your decision making is as bad as ours the results are plainly and painfully visible. Mix all of this in with endless negative publicity they seem to generate on their own, it is a bad look. Arth? He seems like a nice enough guy and I hope he does well. He will be fine regardless of what happens at Akron. I neither like nor dislike his coaching. I would rather hate a coach than be this indifferent. Heck, I don't even watch much of the games because I just can't stand to watch football that is as bad as it is. At least you can hate someone who is actually doing something. The problem Arth has now is his dance with the Chargers. His lack of commitment to UofA was plainly on display and was the beginning of the end of his time at Akron. Arth is what guys like Larry Williams and average participants on boards of corporations/universities believe a coach/manager should look like. There was nothing in his resume that would suggest he would be successful at UTC, let alone Akron, but the geniuses at the top thought differently. You could make a case for every coach from Faust through Bowden (except for Coach I) was a decent hire at the time. Faust came from ND. Owens had some time at OSU and was a known guy around Ohio who might be able to get recruits to rebuild a program nobody wanted. JD was a nationally known, hot name in the coaching ranks when he was at Pitt. Bowden was a Bowden. What was the case for Arth? Good looking?....So what? Played in the NFL?....So what? From NE Ohio?...So what? Coached at JC and UTC?....So what? Went to St. I?....So what? I could do this all day. His hollow resume was obvious.

This doesn't have to be the fate of Akron or G5 football. It can be better...much better. G5 schools can use football to have a positive impact on the athletes, students, alumni, fans and the greater communities where they exist. At some point they have to stop tilting at windmills and develop a reality based plan that allows the schools to be impactful in these areas. People will say that this line of thinking isn't "dreaming big". Really? What have G5 schools gotten for dreaming big over the past 25 years? Stadiums they can't afford? Salaries they can't afford? One incompetent AD after another delivering another broken "building process"? Weeknight games in front of empty stadiums? Dwindling community support? Apathetic alumni? Fans that can't even muster enough enthusiasm to at least show up at the stadium to tailgate, play some cornhole and get drunk with friends? When someone says, "Dream big", they normally mean they want what someone else has. It's called envy. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins and not something you want to base your decisions around. How is this envy working out for G5 schools? Are G5 closer or further away from the P5 schools in football right now? G5 schools need to go on the pursuit of what is best for them in lieu of what someone else has. When we do that, schools can be more impactful to the athletes, students, alumni, fans and greater communities.